A former lawmaker, Dr. Wunmi Bewaji, yesterday, said the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, should be allowed to have its way in deciding the leadership of the 9th National Assembly.
Dr. Bewaji, who was the leader of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) caucus in the 5th National Assembly and represented Lagos Mainland Federal Constituency, said international party convention should not be jettisoned in choosing the leaders of the next National Assembly.
The APC favours Senator Ahmed Lawan as the next senate president, but there are discordant tunes within the party over the choice.
Speaking, however, with Daily Trust against the backdrop of the ongoing controversy over the leadership of the National Assembly, Bewaji said leadership of the National Assembly could not be “outsourced” from the opposition as obtained in the current federal legislature.
The ex-lawmaker, who is also the Executive Secretary of Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER), said; “I think the party should be allowed; the tradition has always been to allow the party determine the leadership structure of the National Assembly, and the reason is simple. The party ran on particular policies and programmes sold to the electorate.
“Now the party knows its own members. You are not going to outsource that to members of another party because the leadership of the National Assembly is meant to complement and synergise with the elected president.
“In established democracies, that is the reason for example in the US, unless something personal is found against the nominee of the president, the nominee would be allowed to go by the senate.”
